Chinese Styles

[clay]

This is great!

 

[Fuuma]

I really like the chinese 60's look of Wong-Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love, Days of being wild and 2046. The costumes are gorgeous.

 

[PrincessImp.]

There aren't really specific designers, many of these photos are costumes from TV shows (equivalent to medieval times flicks I suppose)..

Since its traditional/ancient dress you probably won't find Qi Paos in a store because those dresses are meant to fit every millimeter of your body perfectly. but you can go to a tailor who specializes in these to create one for you, you can choose the style, materials, trim, etc..

However, theres always "Shanghai Tang" (www.shanghaitang.com) who specializes in selling mass produced ancient Oriental clothing, home objects, novelty items etc. They will also tailor a specially made Qi Pao for you, but much more expensive of course. Not sure if they are in China, but there is one in admiralty or central in HK for sure.

Hope this helps

I'll have to agree..since these pictures are of TV/movie costumes, I wonder if they should be in this area of the forum?

Anyway it is true that qi paos/cheongsums fit the female form best when they are tailor-made, as they were meant to be provocative but not revealing. Besides Shanghai Tang, there are lots more shops in other parts of Asia where ready-made cheongsams are sold at consumer-friendlier prices.

A lot of the costumes posted here(with the possible exception of the cheongsams) draw their inspiration waaayy back in history, from a few hundred years back.

Some of the silohuettes still feature strongly in the collections of several designers today, but I think it would be impossible to dress in garments like these without appearing over-the-top, or too costumey, which they actually are anyway.

 

[EDISON27]

Some of them seemed soooo tacky to me,thats not the real chinese style,not delicate enough.

 

[Mr-Dale]

Guys, please remember to post the credits of the pictures you post. I'd hate to remove them, because I really enjoy them

 

[jaymee]

i like Wong-Kar-Wai's IN THE MOOD OF LOVE....actually all qi pao in Wong's movies were designed by Mr. Cheung-Sok-Ping. He found alot of vintage pieces from China/HK to make those beautiful qi pao.

 

[taz]

so, to make it short, are there any addresses for chinese fashion designers who makes traditional folk. dresses & good 'qi paos/cheongsums'?

 

[Pinky*]

well, where in china do you plan on going..? each province has its own traditional dress as well..

taz, have you been to shanghai tang before? The items on their website indeed are westernized versions to appeal to tourists, etc but they also provide a qi pao creation service which is not featured on the website.. however, if you let us know where you're going I'm sure many members will be able to give you more specific recommendations

 

[vanishing]

taz, Pinky is right!!! ""There aren't really specific designers, many of these photos are costumes from TV shows."
but i don't think the items on Shanghaitang.com are traditional or mix&match well with western stuff. Plus they r really expensive~~~
taz, there r many stylish, interesting stores in shanghai, but unfortunately they don't have their own websites or pages.... maybe u could try MaoMing Road when u r here. U definitely will find some gorgeous and fashionable qipaos in those stores. And if u r lucky, u could get very unique one at a nice price.

 

[Pinky*]

You could always ask hotel concierge for a local tailor who specializes in creating qi paos. I'm sure they recieve those kinds of requests quite often

I still say go for a tailor made one. Trust me, it makes a huge difference, esp since perfectly tailored is the way its meant to be worn. It'll take just a couple of days to finish if you bug the tailor a bit.

 

[Lena]

,,,Sorrry , I can't understand quitely, I didn't save the links of this photos, actually I found these in Chinese search engine. And what do you mean about credit breakdown by post>?

ok, we need to bend the rules just for this time, from now on, kindly post LINKS or CREDITS for any picture posted, or else we will certainly need to edit/delete the photo(s)..
we dont want to be a pain to you guys, but these are tFS rules
kindly apply next time

 

[Lena]

Some of them seemed soooo tacky to me,thats not the real chinese style,not delicate enough.

why don't you supply us with what you think is delicate enough Edison27, just dont forget to add credits by designer or website
this will be really interesting -and enlightening- to all of us following this thread.

"tacky" or not, at least sisiwong went in all the trouble of posting these pics for us..
and this is fully appreci-able

 

[Pinky*]

ed- I agree that this is not "real chinese style" but its impossible to find a few 1000 yr old garmets to replicate perfectly. Plus I think you have to take into consideration these are mostly costumes from TV dramas TVB churns out endlessly.. so I imagine that they're on a budget..

I noticed you're from China.. and indeed mainland TV shows that take place in historical times are much more accurate than HK or TW..

 

[galviggo]

This is so damned ugly and hootchie:

Qi pao should never be short!

*edited: reposting not allowed, please post your comments reffering on post number, thanks for your understanding

 

[galviggo]

Who is this girl? (I don't care for the clothes) but she's so pretty!

 

[galviggo]

Hella...Ugly...:
Chinese S&M wear or something...

 

[Pinky*]

ok lets repeat one last time.. these are low budget COSTUMES.. I didn't care much for your 'chinese S&M wear' comment, although that is not a true ancient dress style..

and as for the 'hootchie, thats cecilia cheung.. equivalent of anna nicole smith meets britney spears..

 

[Artemis]

taz- It's usually unanimously agreed upon that the best tailors can be found in Shanghai (or at least price to workmanship value). Do a little bit of searching and you'll find some names and numbers. Here's a few:

Miss Tsao (86-21-5889-5207) comes to your hotel to do measurements and is also available to accompany you to the fabric market. She's excellent at vintage creations and romantic looks.
Mr. Chen (86-21-5218-0621) will also come to your hotel for measurements. Once he has your sizes and patterns made to fit, he is happy to work via fax and mail on additional pieces. He is the best man for traditional tailoring and exceptionally beautiful qipaos. Both tailors are proficient in English, but your hotel can also arrange a translator.

http://www.departures.com/fa/fa_0304_shanghai.html

You can order one online here:
http://www.transprism.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=49_26

Hope that helps

 

[haoshcn]

Yes, most of them just look tacky and irrelevant. It's quite sad, but I must admit (I am a Chinese from mainland China) that China doesn't have any original and modern fashion design at this moment. I mean just look at other Asian countries. Lots of them do much better in terms of creative fashion design than us while we are a country with several millenia continuous cultural traditions and 1.3 billion population. Look at Japan, what a tremendous contribution their designers have made and are still making to contemporary fashion! Even Korea and Singapore have names that show up on Paris and New York fashion-week schedules regularly, while we can hardly name anyone that's even remotely worth mentioning. Vivienne Tam (anyway, she's originally from Hongkong, not even mainland) or Shanghai Tang? Thank God, who cares about them except a small number of Sinophiles who love the so-called exotic Oriental beauty?!

I can't believe there's no superb fashion talents in China right now, since we have such a big population and we have names like Chen Kaige and Cai Guoqiang that we could be genuinely proud of in other forms of arts. There must be some serious problems with Chinese fashion industry and its professional circle that make nuturing of original design and creative designers impossible. Anyway I am an outsider in terms of fashion business, I'll leave the elaboration of this issue to the insiders from Chinese fashion industry.

 

[galviggo]

*edited: reposting not allowed, please post your comments reffering on post number, thanks for your understanding

Sorry... I thought the rules were you just don't quote pictures anymore. Will refer to post # from now on (although it makes things much more unwieldy you know! )